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Nature Biotechnology 27, 588–589 (1 July 2009) | doi:10.1038/nbt0709-588

Report claims no yield advantage for Bt crops

Cormac Sheridan

A controversial report claims that traits introduced to food crops by genetic engineering (GE) have had, at best, a minor impact on yield. The report, Failure to Yield: Evaluating the Performance of Genetically Modified Crops, published on April 14 by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), argues that the adoption of expensive, GE-based approaches to agriculture has been at the cost of cheaper alternatives that carry less environmental risk.